Thanks to Bacon, Pork Production is Booming in the U.S.

These days, you can find bacon in just about everything—ice cream, candy, muffins, even brownies. And apparently America's recent fixation on this beloved breakfast product has not been without impact: According to Bloomberg, pork production in the U.S. has officially surpassed that of beef, at nearly 25 billion pounds in January 2016. (Chicken still leads the pack at around 40 billion pounds per month, according to Bloomberg.)

This isn't just because Americans themselves are eating so much pork, apparently; we're also exporting a lot of it. About 15 percent of U.S.-produced pork is exported, per Bloomberg, increasingly to countries like Mexico and Japan.

But the bacon bounce is not to be discounted. Writes Justin Fox, at Bloomberg:

...The National Pork Board and its members helped engineer the rise of bacon by promoting pre-cooking techniques that made it easier for fast food restaurants to include bacon on their menus. Then high-end chefs and hipsters jumped on the bacon bandwagon, too. The big move by McDonald's last fall to start serving breakfast all day added yet another source of demand for bacon (and pork sausage).

What we're saying is, bacon is not going anywhere anytime soon. Jump on the bandwagon with one of these excellent bacon recipes now.